This story was told by a person incarcerated in Chino.
UCI: So what has the COVID situation been like at your facility?
Caller: At our facility, it impacted the facility real rough.
UCI: Mm-hmm.
Caller: And rapid paced, as of January and December, well, December through January is our roughest months, because it came to our dormitory where we were there and they cross contaminated people. And it became very scary in here to the point where out of negative results, 150 people just got it within hours. And next thing we know it stopped our programs for our school, GED, our working workshops, laundry, cooking, program office workers, clerk workers, and students who are trying to get their GED. They also stopped our program SAP which help us get reentry back – also stopped SAP which help us get back into a reentry program in society.
Nextly, the COVID pandemic just stopped everything for us in here, like, there is no social distancing, it’s very bad in here, and it just keeps going and going. They basically stopped our milestones to help us get time knocked off for us that’s nonviolent offenders at a level one institution. We’re supposed to get a lot of programming credits, rack credits, milestones, but we can’t do it ’cause of corona.
UCI: Yeah.
Caller: They put a big stop on everything. Like we can’t go to chow hall no more, we can’t just go to a regular doctor’s appointment, we can’t get visits from our family, the only thing we got going right now is the letters that came from y’all, these phone calls and that’s it. So, we’re basically on pause with our families too, because some of us, like me, I lost my son last year, September [redacted], and now I can’t even get a visit by my kids due to corona. It’s hard, like, it’s been a bad, bad stop on everything.
UCI: Gotcha man, hey, and I’m sorry to hear about that man. You know and it’s definitely hard when, you know, you lose someone you love. And to, you know, to move on to another question, what about, like, the vaccination situation, how has that been at your facility?
Caller: To me it’s bad. I was vaccinated in reception before I came to CIU. I got vaccinated in August, and before the corona even hit my building, we talked to the sergeants, lieutenants and everybody, and asked them could they not move people in here that have COVID. And they basically didn’t listen to us and we all got COVID, including myself.
Even though we were vaccinated, probably didn’t show any symptoms, they said we all caught COVID. And because of that we been on a standstill, we don’t get programs or nothing no more, we’re just in the building stuck in here until we come off of this lock down.
I guess, apparently there is three phases of isolation which we weren’t on for a month. Now we’re on regular quarantine, which is two weeks, then they have another quarantine called the COVID recovery and that – we’re still not getting program. Like, I was supposed to be going home sometime this year, but it’s on pause because the staffing’s down with corona, our counselors are down with corona, the medical staff is down with corona.
We can’t even go to the dentist ’cause the dentist people are down with corona. It’s like we’re not getting nothing done here.
UCI: Gotcha man, yeah, and yeah, I mean I can only imagine what you guys are going through, you know, I’m guessing it’s definitely a whole lot, you know, it’s already hard out here, but I can only imagine what it’s like in there. And like to move on to a different question, you know, how have you been coping with everything that’s going on, like, with the crisis?
Caller: As far as everything going on right now, there’s a lot of positive role models in here, like I’m part of a religious group, Muslims, I pray five times a day, and try to help conditions get better for us. Because right now it seems like nobody is taking it serious to what is going on in here. It’s very bad there is no social distancing or anything, so all I can do is pray five times a day and hope for the best and seek better and positive energy from people.
UCI: Nice, yeah, yeah, yeah, I get you man and I respect that totally, and you know, what would you have done to make the situation at your facility better?
Caller: Yeah, first and foremost, I think just try to get people to be able to have video visits with their family due to this pandemic, because people are losing their families left and right out there and we’re just now finding out in here. Like, people are just now finding out that their parents didn’t die today, and it was over a month ago. So, it’s kind of hard for us to get to the outside world as far as this phone situation, it’s kind of hard. So, when we received them letters about y’all trying to help us out, it kind of, you know, loosened up the tension that’s going on that the pandemic brought on us.
UCI: Definitely, definitely, yeah man and, you know, I mean that’s what we’re here for man. We’re here to try to be the voice for you guys, and you know, try to voice your guys’ stories to let the world know what’s really going on and how COVID is affecting you guys. So yeah, you know, that’s what we’re here for you, to help you guys out. And then, like, moving on to a different question, you mentioned about, like you know, video visits so I’m guessing they reduced the visitation rights that you guys have right?
Caller: Yeah, they already stopped like face to face visits, or contact visits, due to corona.
UCI: Mm-hmm.
Caller: They don’t want anybody in the prison, so they resorted to the Zoom visits or iWeb visits. And that’s becoming a problem, because you got to get an application, then it takes six to eight weeks or a couple months to get approved, then you gotta hope there’s an opening just to get a video visit.
Like I said, people are just now finding out their parents is dying, like, my sister in law just died and I just found out this happened two weeks ago. It’s kind of like scary trying to get to our loved ones besides through letters. It’s hard with the letter situation, like, we’re hoping to improve because everybody is getting letters that are a month old, three weeks old, five weeks old.
We’re not being relevant to the outside world, all we get is information from the COs and whoever come in that tell us, that “Hey it’s bad out there,” well we don’t know because we don’t have contact to the outside world. So my best answer for that is to improve on our mailing and our visitation.
UCI: Yeah definitely, and you mentioned the COs, what about them, have they been helping you guys, like you know, have they been handing out masks to you guys like every day, like a new nice fresh mask every day, giving you guys, like, gloves and sanitation stuff?
Caller: Not really. Like, it comes but it don’t come, it comes periodically out of nowhere. Since we been on lockdown, we probably only got the cleaning products out of a whole month, probably twice or three times. As far as them coming to bring N95 masks, they just started this three weeks ago and we’re already going into our second month on lockdown.
UCI: Mm-hmm.
Caller: I guess by people filing 602’s, getting their family members trying to get some outside network to come and see how these conditions is, ’cause they’re very bad and I mean very bad. It gets to the point where the water and everything gets cut off in here, now we can’t use the restroom, now we can’t get water to stay hydrated, ’cause some of these people is still positive. You got to be very hydrated, we don’t get all that.
UCI: Gotcha man. Mm-hmm. And so, I’m guessing they haven’t been providing, you know, the proper resources to you guys when you guys really need them huh?
Caller: Yeah, they don’t follow the, I think it’s the PPE.
UCI: Yeah, yeah.
Caller: Or the CDC guidelines for our social distancing. Like our building only supposed to have 100, 85 to 100 people, and we’re, we’re pushing the max set, 175 and almost every single bunk is two to three feet from each other with two people in it.
UCI: Gotcha.
Caller: We’re overpopulated for sure.
UCI: Mm-hmm.
Caller: Like I said, it’s hard for us to get home because they stopped all our programs that help us get days knocked off to be able to go home early. We can’t go home early, we can’t get no early kick, none of that because everything just stopped, it’s harder.
UCI: Gotcha man, yeah, yeah, yeah, no I feel you man. You know, it’s, I can only imagine what you guys are going through. And from everything that you’re telling me, you know, it sounds like they don’t really have the situation under control. It seems like they can be doing a lot better, and one last question for you man, what else do you want people to know about your experience?
Caller: That this experience is a once in a lifetime experience, and for future reference I am never coming back to prison. Because this experience during the pandemic, I don’t advise anybody out there to get in trouble in society, or not follow any rules out there. Be a law-abiding citizen, don’t get locked up during a pandemic inside a county jail or a prison.
It’s not the business right now, because it’s not cute, people are dying left and right, people are getting sick left and right, we’re not getting proper medical care, we’re not getting anything. Like right now, it seems like everybody forgot about us, so, my future answer to that is don’t come back, stay out of trouble.
UCI: Gotcha man, nice, thank you for that man. And, I mean, are there any last second thoughts, you know, about your COVID-19 situation, or anything else you want to let us know, before I let you go?
Caller: Yes, I just hope this prison can improve on the situation as far as the cleaning products, the game is to get home early, releasing the people for reduce population control.
UCI: Gotcha man, hey man well, I wanna say thank you so much for calling in, we really appreciate your story actually, and you know, we’re here for you guys. So, let your friends know about us, we’re here Monday through Friday five to nine, you know, we’re here to listen to you guys and we’re here to be the voice for you.
Caller: Thanks.
UCI: All right man, have a good day.
Caller: All right, bye.
